Saturday, October 07, 2006

That was the question presented tonight. My atheist buddy Jonas (He's the guy who wears the "Friendly Neighborhood Athiest" T-shirt) brought some friends to movie night. I think they enjoyed watching the classic cult Sci-Fi flick "Robot Monster" in a church. After all churches are not supposed to show Sci-Fi films, so the movie had a sense of forbidden pleasure attached to it.

How did churches ever get to the point that we couldn't do normal things which are typically attributed to good clean fun? I am sure Jonas' friends never thought about why they feel churches do not show Sci-Fi films. It is simply an expectation about things churches do. Of course it was a Jewish perspective, and an Atheist perspective, but last week someone said the same thing when we showed "The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." Last week it was a Pagan acquaintance who struggled with how a church could show the fruit fight movie. (Yes - tomatoes are fruit.)

Jonas's friends stayed around until last, and we talked, and I learned some interesting things from them, and we even mentioned God a few times, and they didn't run away, or feel uncomfortable. They told a few atheist jokes about prayer, and Christianity, and I laughed - the jokes really were pretty funny, and too often true to form of much Christianity. I didn't get nervous or defensive by the jokes. We all had fun, and I am sure they think a little differently about churches now - well okay maybe only about our church, but that's good enough for me.

What do you think? Is it okay to show Sci-Fi flicks in a church?

I am wondering if Ro-man has the power to touch people for Jesus? I suppose all things are possible with God. Of course, we don't show the movies to get people saved. We show the movie to have fun, and make the church a meeting place for the community. Maybe that's why it seems so strange to show "Robot Monster" in a church - we didn't do an altar call.